The term ‘Prosumer’ refers to the combination of producers and consumers. A Prosumer both consumes and produces things of value. It was coined by American Futurist Alvin toffler in 1980 and has now become a commonly used phrase in the world of technology.

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The term can easily be applied to a new generation of students (especially younger students) for the same reason it has become a common term amongst technology writers: With properly curated Active Learning and the entirety of the internet’s research sources at their fingertips,, the student is often not only consuming knowledge, but are capable of producing their own knowledge in return and offering that knowledge to a wider audience of students and educators in turn.

It could be argued that this has historically been the goal of some academic pursuits as well. In a pure knowledge economy the end goal of learning is to be able to not only understand what has been learned in the past, but to expand upon that knowledge for those studying in the future.

Modern digital technology allowing for easy communications between students and often even creators (such as in the case of various fan fictions and forums) allows students to conceptualize new knowledge and have those concepts checked by the content experts within minutes, further allowing those same students to very quickly become producers of knowledge after consuming only a little of the original source materials.

Furthermore, whereas the traditional student will conceptualize new knowledge mostly on assignment from a teacher or for commercial purposes, the modern prosumer-type student will often create new material for no specific self-gain or reward other than to spread their work to to other like minded folks throughout the digital sharing economy.

While the jury seems to be still out whether prosumerism in education will eventually supersede a more traditional student profile, in my own experience the advantage of encouraging lateral thinking and participation through a prosumer approach to learning has been beneficial for both the teacher and student.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosumer#:~:text=A%20prosumer%20is%20an%20individual,monetised%20prosumers%2C%20and%20economic%20prosumers.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/edui.v1i1.21931

https://medium.com/@aditya.vikram/the-rise-of-prosumers-and-what-it-means-for-consumer-companies-26d408325934

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341388088_Prosumerism_in_Higher_Education-Does_It_Meet_the_Disability_Test